Flaws noted in Occupy Seattle protester's miscarriage story

Police report shows she gave different dates for pregnancy claim

CASEY MCNERTHNE, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Updated 10:22 pm, Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Jennifer Fox, 19, is rushed to aid after she was hit by pepper spray at a Nov. 15 Occupy Seattle protest at Westlake Park. She told seattlepi.com that day she was two months pregnant, and three days later said she was "three months pregnant today." A police report from September also shows she claimed she was three months pregnant in late September. On Monday, she made claims to bloggers that police force and the pepper spray caused a miscarriage.

Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO

Jennifer Fox, 19, is rushed to aid after she was hit by pepper...

Medics treat 19-year-old Jennifer Fox after she was hit by pepper spray at a Nov. 15 Occupy Seattle protest at Westlake Park. She told seattlepi.com that day she was two months pregnant, and three days later said she was "three months pregnant today." A police report from September also shows she claimed she was three months pregnant in late September. On Monday, she made claims to bloggers that police force and the pepper spray caused a miscarriage.

Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO

Medics treat 19-year-old Jennifer Fox after she was hit by pepper...

A portion of the Sept. 23, 2011, police incident report in which Jennifer Fox claimed she was three months pregnant, according to officers. She also made that claim to a seattlepi.com photographer at a Nov. 15 Occupy Seattle rally. Her claims have been questioned after Fox blamed Seattle police force for a miscarriage. (Seattle Police Department report)

A woman who claimed she was pregnant and miscarried after being pepper sprayed has inconsistencies in her story.

Jennifer Fox, 19, was photographed Nov. 15 after being hit with pepper spray at an Occupy Seattle protest. On Monday, she told the Stranger that she suffered a miscarriage from being pepper sprayed, claimed she was kicked by police, and was upset that a cop "would murder a baby that's not born yet."

Fox also claimed in September that she was three months pregnant, according to a police report obtained by seattlepi.com.

Late on Sept. 22, Seattle police say, they found Fox and several others squatting in a vacant building at 1250 Denny Way, which used to be a Greyhound maintenance facility. The building and grounds are secured by a fence and doors were either locked or boarded over.

A security officer told police six people were hiding in a dark garage area at the property, now owned by City Light. One of the men, Zachary Johannes, swore at one of the security officers and took a fighting stance, according to the report.

Another of the squatters had a juvenile court warrant and allegedly lied about her name because she was a runaway. She was booked into the Youth Service Center.

Fox "said she is three months pregnant with Johannes' baby and began crying when he was arrested," the report reads. "(Fox) began holding her stomach and was screaming it hurt."

Fox was treated at the scene and transported to Harborview Medical Center by a fire department aid unit. She wasn't charged in the incident, but the man she said was the baby's father was charged with first-degree criminal trespass, assault and false reporting.

He pleaded guilty Oct. 13 to trespassing and the other charges were dropped.

When KIRO radio's Brandi Kruse questioned Fox about the September incident on Tuesday, Fox denied remembering the incident, then changed her story and said that the "police report must have been wrong" because she told police she was one month pregnant at the time.

In a statement, police department spokesman Jeff Kappel did not address Fox by name but said police were aware of claims by a woman at the Occupy Seattle protest that she miscarried because of the pepper spray and physical contact with an officer.

"No formal complaint has been made," Kappel said. "Consistent with standard procedure, the (Office of Professional Accountability) has self-initiated an internal investigation and OPA is actively searching for any information that will support this claim."